Within the last few years, there has been a revival of cinema in Pakistan. The cinema culture has been developed. People have found a new form of entertainment to pass quality time with their friends and family. However, the opening of cinemas has created few issues as well. One of the most debated issues is whether screening of Indian movies should be allowed in Pakistan or not. Both side of argument exists and will be discussed in the following article.
Cinema owners support the stance of screening of Indian movies in Pakistan because they have a relatively large audience. Hence, the initial investment can easily be covered within a week. Also, Pakistani film industry does not produce enough films in a year to keep cinema running throughout the year. Therefore, by screening of Indian movies, cinemas’ fixed costs can be met and also it gives a chance to earn profits as well.
However, few of the Pakistani film makers and producers strongly oppose the idea of screening of Indian movies in Pakistani cinemas. They argue that since the Indian movies have a larger target market act as a source of larger revenue for the cinema owners so they are some times reluctant to screen Pakistani movies. Hence, Pakistani movies are discriminated against the Indian ones in their own country, even if they manage to get some air time, they don’t get the preferred time slots. This further leads o the deterioration of Pakistani film industry which is already working hard for its survival.
The opposing side counters the above argument by saying that the intense competition provided by Indian movies to Pakistani cinema has some positive impacts as well. Now Pakistani producers know that their movies face competition of world level so they will also try to improve on their quality. They will invest more in high quality films in order to attract Pakistani viewers towards Lollywood. This will be a step forward towards the improvement of Pakistani film industry.